Our Story

Learn how we became a leading custom lighting manufacturer.

ABOUT HAMMERTON

Hammerton is a leading U.S. custom lighting designer and manufacturer, but like many notable businesses it started with two young men in a garage. One of those men, Levi Wilson, had grown up in his father's ornamental iron fabrication shop and had the art of metalcraft in his blood. The year was 1995.

Hammerton got its foothold by serving the burgeoning second home market in nearby Park City, and word of the young upstart company spread fast. Hammerton quickly gained national recognition for creating unique fixtures that were not only beautifully crafted, but also perfectly proportioned and exquisitely detailed to each customer's unique specifications. Levi's obsession with uncompromising aesthetic and functional design, perfect scale and his '10-inch rule' — requiring each completed fixture to withstand a scrutinous eye from less than a foot away — were the guiding principles that attracted the attention of leading designers and architects and fueled the company's growth. Today, Hammerton fixtures can be found in luxury residences and leading hospitality properties around the world.

One of the first companies to combine old-world artisan techniques with modern design and manufacturing, Hammerton has made significant investments in technology, lean production and process innovation to become a leading provider of handcrafted custom lighting. Whether a project involves scaling or otherwise modifying a catalog product, working with customer-specified materials, or designing a fixture or a collection entirely from scratch, Hammerton is uniquely qualified to deliver what may be the finest custom decorative solution available today.

To accommodate the complex requirements of custom lighting, all of Hammerton operations are consolidated in the company's 50,000 sf facillty in Salt Lake City. This facilitates rapid quote turnaround, seamless project management and timely response to customer needs. Our goal is to provide an outstanding customer experience, and based on customer feedback, we do.

We regularly tour design professionals and their clients through our manufacturing facility and corporate showroom, and we also provide personal design consultations onsite. Give us a call the next time you come through Salt Lake City — we're right next to the airport and would be happy to pick you up.

WATCH US at Work

Fabrication

Finishes

Hand Blown Glass

Lean Manufacturing: A Green Business Model

AT HAMMERTON, environmental stewardship isn't just a company initiative.

it's a foundational component of our business model.

In every aspect of company operations, we adhere to lean production principles and processes that enable us to deliver maximum value to our customers while minimizing waste and space usage. Less waste results in fewer manufacturing byproducts and smaller landfills, while less space requires less energy to heat and light our facilities.

U.S.-based Sourcing and Manufacturing = Low Embodied Energy

While most of our industry manufactures offshore, every Hammerton product is manufactured, assembled, packed and shipped from Salt Lake City, Utah. Additionally, most of the raw materials that go into our products is sourced within the 48 states. Domestic sourcing and manufacturing dramatically reduces the embodied energy in Hammerton products primarily because of the inherent environmental costs associated with transporting raw materials and finished goods over long distances, and the fact that most foreign production facilities have significantly lower environmental quality standards than we do in the U.S.

Lean Manufacturing = Less Waste & Lower Energy Usage

Our use of lean manufacturing methods reduces both waste and space usage during the production process. Less waste results in fewer manufacturing byproducts and smaller landfills. Less space requires less energy to heat and light our plant. To further reduce energy usage, we use high efficiency luminaries in all of our buildings. We also use state-of-the-art software to minimize scrap in our steel cutting operations.

VOC-Free Paint

We have pioneered a new generation of high performance architectural powder coat paints that provide the aesthetic appearance of our traditional wet coat paints, plus the durability and environmental benefits of powder coats. Our powder coat paints are VOC-free and contain no hazardous air pollutants. Additionally, over 98% of overspray can be retrieved and reused, minimizing waste and disposal hazards. Hammerton paints can contribute toward LEED credits under the USGBC category of “Indoor Environmental Quality”.

Environmentally Sensitive Packaging

In order to safely ship our products, we use bio-stable, recyclable packaging foam that expands to about 280 times its original volume. Two drums of this material – less than a pallet’s worth – is equal to an entire tractor trailer of common foam packing peanuts. Using this expanding foam dramatically reduces fuel consumption in the delivery process.

Company-Wide Recycling

Virtually every major waste product from our manufacturing and shipping process is recycled, including 100% of our scrap steel, all incoming cartons and boxes, and our empty packaging foam drums. Additionally, most of our office consumables are recycled or reused.

Sustainable Wood Suppliers

All wood used in our products, or the packaging of our products, comes from wood suppliers which are certified by recognized forestry sustainability agencies, including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative of the American Forest & Paper Association.

Efficient Lighting Options

We strongly encourage the use of ENERGY STAR qualified lamps in our luminairies whenever possible. For customers subject to more stringent efficiency standards (e.g. those in California), we offer GU-24 based luminaries which comply with California’s Title 24 building standards. Most of our fixtures can be ordered with this option.